Hi,
So another store in my local strip has closed down, nearly 6 months after opening. It's become so often that the landscape is so diff to say 2 years ago…. SO the question is, do you visit your local stores? If not why? Do we have an obligation to visit these stores to keep the local community active or is saving a few dollar/time more important. Just a discussion.
Cheers
Exactly how would a greengrocer keep up with the times?
I've got a relatively local one who won't take Eftpos under $10. Friendly enough fella, told me to pay next time I came in, but I didn't know when that would be and I didn't feel right not paying. Won't go back as I rarely use cash.
Wow, so you never purchase more than $10 worth of food?
@kahn: At that time I was just after a few zucchini. But mainly no, I'm not home much as I live at work, so when I do go home I end up catching up with friends at a pub or restaurant for most major meals.
Some will take card for under $10 if you press Credit. There is a flat percentage fee structure for CC transactions.
It's just eftpos where you pay a fixed amount which can be a very high percentage when under $10. You just need to ask, Cincotta Chemist allowed me to use Paypass with under the eftpos limit.
Get bigger for greater economies of scale.
You sound like a first year economics student :-P If the greengrocer was struggling as a small operation, then there's very little chance that expanding the business would make it more profitable.
@kahn: You sound like a desk worker :-P
E.g. There's a local chemist in Chatswood that just became a Chemist Warehouse - the 3rd on Victoria Avenue.
@kahn: It all comes down to economies of scale (and yes, I have a Masters in Commerce and Economics)
It all comes down to economies of scale (and yes, I have a Masters in Commerce and Economics)
Then you should also know every chemist is different.
The value proposition is not just the products themselves. That's the tangible, there's also the intangible product.
Value added by service, shopping experience, friendliness of staff.
Economies of scale cannot be applied so simply where something cannot be standardized.
Chemists are not commodities where you cannot differentiate a standardized grade of fuel from Australia vs Russia.
One Amy's Baking Companycannot succeed if ten of them were open.
If the product is bad, no amount of economies of scale is going to save you.
What was your Bachelors?
Small business in this market has been massively disrupted by the duopoly of Coles and woolies opening everywhere possible and the government allowing them to trade a lot more hours than they used to.
Convenience becomes inane when Coles and woolies are convenient.
Here come Metro stores to replace convenient stores.
I visit my local EB store, my local Woolworths store and my local coles store. Does that count?
I think OP refers to non-chain independent local stores (small business).
The only local store I miss, is the corner shop that sells the best burgers with the lot, and wraps your hot chips in butcher paper…
And then McDonalds arrived and people preferred that to real food, the end …..?
Yes, I visit all my local stores, they are very competitive compared to the big supermarket chains.
However, with rents going up, I have seen lots of small shops with lots of foot traffic close down. Some smaller pho restaurants which are almost always full when I visit closed down and got replaced with a Japanese diner. The pho was just too cheap for them to stay in business.
I think you'll see this pattern where cheaper low value stores are replaced with more profitable stores selling high value items.
I visit the local post office acting as an agent for Australia post regularly
Local coffee shop to claim hey you free coffees
Local newsagent to top up my opal - only in November though
Will visit local wherever possible. However have had very bad encounters with owners at certain local shops so won’t return to those unless management changes (just being rude to me and other customers for no reason). All others are great and will use them in the first instance every time.
my local store is a Woolworth's, it's actually nice living so close.
Do we have an obligation to visit these stores…
Lol?
There are local green grocer and butcher with Coles, Woolies and Aldi in same centre for 3 shopping centres nearish to me and the independents all seem to be doing ok. They just need to differentiate from Coles/Woolies eg butcher meat need be better quality for slightly more and people will still go there for service.
There are lot of other shop changes though. They usually complain of high rent or centre forced store refurbishments. Lot of rest of recent closures seem be entire franchise failures eg Ed Harry.
Yeah walking into town is probably my only bit of social interaction with the outside world recently so it is nice to see what the normal humans are doing every now and then.
Have had new shops open and new shops close.
There is no obligation to visit these stores.. you don't even have to buy anything if you are inside.. just do what you feel like it is your life just don't steal anything lol
Let market forces decide.
One of my local stores is Harris Farm which I visit multiple times a week with the family. There was a former greengrocer around the same site, but they didn't keep up with the times and closed when the lease was up.
There's an eatery that's opened months ago that's got people still queuing up around lunch time.